The mother of Shayla Phillips, the four-year-old girl who was found on Friday after being lost for two days in the Tasmanian bush, says her "precious baby girl" is doing well, apart from having "a few bruises, scratches, bites".
Late on Friday night, Shayla's mother Bianca Page took to social media to express her gratitude for those who helped bring her daughter home after she went missing.
"I just want to thank everyone from the bottom of my heart with everything I have that I am currently sitting here with my precious baby girl with a few bruises, scratches, bites and a urine infection after spending over 48 hours alone in the bush," Ms Page wrote.
"The messages I received from everybody your thoughts and prayers were all so overwhelming, I seriously honestly cannot thankyou enough. #ForeverGreatful."
'Devils make scary noises, she is one brave little girl'
Traci Braithwaite said she was taking photos from her home of the bush, in order to convey "how thick the scrub is out here" when she heard rescuers call Shayla's name — and heard the child respond.
"It is thick, very steep, wet and slippery, with years of undergrowth and timber laying on the ground. Holes are deep. [Tasmanian] devils make scary noises at night out here.
"She is one brave little girl."
'Shayla, can you hear me?'
The SES volunteer responsible for helping pull Shayla out of dense scrub has said he's "never been happier to be confused for someone's mum" after the missing girl responded to his call.
Ben Arthur was responsible for calling Shayla's name as the party conducted a line search on Friday afternoon.
"We were conducting a big line search with about 50 members of SES, Tas police, ambulance and Tas parks," he said at a press conference on Saturday.
"We were on the right flank of the search, spread out over quite a big area and we were searching very thoroughly.
"We were stopping periodically to call her name, and for the right flank [that was] my responsibility yesterday.
"The response was for 'Shayla, can you hear me Shayla' ... within half a second of finishing that call her response was 'mummy.'"
"We were just all instantly elated and joyful thinking 'is this really happening?'
"We had been there for three days calling her name hundreds of times and to finally get a response, it actually took a few seconds for us all to register.
"She was pretty close to being to the end of our search line and if we'd had fewer members and fewer volunteers on the ground, it's possible we would have missed her in that sweep… so she may have been out there another night."
Mr Arthur said one of Shayla's first questions to rescuers was about the welfare of the dogs she'd been with.
"That was pretty sweet," he said.
Ian Marmion, the ranger in charge of the Seven Mile beach field centre, was also involved in the extensive search, and said Shayla seemed in surprisingly good health.
"You could tell she was quite dirty, we could hear she was talking about that, she was quite concerned that she was dirty," he said.
Shayla's uncle has described the family's relief that she was located by search parties.
Tyron Page was waiting outside the Royal Hobart Hospital last night when Shayla was brought in by ambulance for medical assessment.
Mr Page was overcome by emotion when speaking about the experience.
"It was the hardest 48 hours of the whole family's life, to be honest. It's been hectic," he said.
'I've spoken to her mum. I've seen video of Shayla, she was asleep … she's OK.
"All the support, everyone [who has] been there, the SES, police from Victoria … on behalf of me and the family, we can't thank everyone enough.
'We're relieved. We had faith. We didn't stop believing. We knew she was coming home. We had to. We knew she was coming home and she's home."
Mr Page was yet to visit Shayla in hospital.
The family's relief was shared by the searchers, the Tasman Peninsula community and people around Australia.
As the news spread that Shayla had been found, SES search crews were heard cheering.
"It's a phenomenal feeling, like everyone was giving themselves pats on the back and cheering and clapping when they came back out [of the bush]. It's amazing after this [time]," SES's Mark Dance said.
"We've been here for three days, we've had in excess of 150 SES volunteers going, like 24 hours, around the clock. So to have this outcome is amazing."
Vicki Skeggs from the local Country Women's Association — which had been on hand to help feed emergency crews — said there was much relief in their hall.
Concern grew for Shayla's wellbeing had been growing the longer it took to find her, especially given how remote the area is.
Experienced bushwalker and nature photographer Dan Broun said the terrain of the Tasman Peninsula is varied, ranging from wet gullies and rain forest right through to dry open eucalypt forest.
"I imagine where Shayla was, it would have been a lot more dense — like a dense understorey of tea-tree scrub, and that sort of stuff, mixed under, perhaps, a taller forest of eucalypt," he said.
"The dense scrub actually helps things. If it's not wet, it's going to help her, because she could basically burrow in underneath it."
Temperatures in the area reached around 11 degrees Celsius both nights, which Mr Broun said was warmer than usual for March.
"We've had a really mild autumn, generally, so normally this time of year we could be getting down to zero [degrees C]."
"She was really lucky with the weather … if she had sub zero — even zero overnight — or, if she had've gotten herself wet … then she could've got hypothermic quite easily."
Mr Broun said anyone can get lost "really easily".
While snakes and giant spiders are usually thought of as the biggest dangers in Tasmania's wilderness, Mr Broun said it is actually the small things that pose the biggest threat.
"It's quite dry. It's perfect ant country," he said.
"So, potentially, she could've suffered quite a few ant bites, jackjumpers [a type of bull ant].
"So for a little girl, jackjumpers would actually be the worst thing she would come across, because snakes are pretty shy, they'll get out of your way."
Tegan Grainger from the Port Arthur General Store said every second customer had been asking about the search effort.
Ms Grainger said the store helped by getting food to the volunteers and others looking for Shayla.
"For the last three days, one of us has been in the shop from four o'clock in the morning making the salad rolls and cakes and slices and all the rest to get it out there and delivering it out to them so they're all fed," she said
